Los Angeles Lakers Overcome 19-Point Deficit To Trip Sacramento Kings 101-91

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, California — The Sacramento Kings found out what the Golden State Warriors did not want to believe: The Los Angeles Lakers are good under rookie coach Luke Walton. Really, really good.

In a nationally-televised game on TNT at Golden 1 Center, the Lakers (5-4) improved to 2-3 on the road by beating the Kings 101-91. Sacramento squandered a 19-point lead in the first half to fall 2-2 at home.

“I think our defense broke down towards the end. We let them get a lot of shots that they can hit and that gave them confidence,” said Kings center/power forward DeMarcus Cousins. “We should have buried them in the second half. They let it be known what their game plan is. But we gave them confidence and some momentum in this game for them to finish it out the way they did.”

Sacramento Kings head coach Dave Joerger talks to the media before his team played the Los Angeles Lakers at Golden 1 Center on Nov. 10.

Cousins lead all scorers with 28 points. The two-time All Star selection also had nine rebounds, four assists and two steals. Rudy Gay added 15 points, eight rebounds, and two steals for the Kings (4-6). Darren Collison had nine assists.

The Lakers outscored the Kings 56-36 in the second half and they did it with piazza and defensive grit on Sacramento’s star player DeMarcus Cousins, who went scoreless in the third quarter. The Lakers sent triple teams after Cousins all night.

He was 10-for-25 from the floor. At one stretch during the game, the Kings in the second half went 1-for-15 shooting from the field. Walton credited that effort to the Lakers’ never-give-up attitude.

“We competed,” Walton said. “In the first half (the Kings) were making shots but we were letting them swing the ball side to side. It happens every time we play defense like that. If you let people get comfortable at this level they are going to make shots. In the second half I think we did a much better job of being physical and not letting them move the ball freely.”

Offensively, the Lakers used a balanced attack to pull out the victory. D’Angelo Russell had 17 points, Nick Young scored 16, Julius Randle added 15 points, and Lou Williams came off the bench to chip in a team-high 21 points.

“We pretty much picked up the energy,” Young said. “We played more as a team and played more aggressive.”

Willie Cauley-Stein’s two-handed dunk with less than a minute left in the first quarter gave the Kings a 30-16 lead. Sacramento made four of seven shots beyond the and out rebounded the Lakers 15-9 before the second quarter began.

The Kings started to light the Lakers up when Barnes hit two back-to-back shots on two steals and Anthony Tolliver’s 25-foot 3-point basket with 4:24 left in the first half put Sacramento up 49-30. Kings led 55-45 at the break.

The Lakers jumped out in the third quarter with renewed energy. Before the Kings realized it, the Lakers went on a 15-5 run, which ended with Young making 3-point shot to cut Sacramento lead 60-55.

The Kings managed to bump the lead back to 10 points, but the scrappy Lakers dug deeper by slashing Sacramento’s margin 71-68 on a big 3-point shot by Clarkson. The game went into the fourth quarter with the Kings leading 73-70.

The Lakers finally took the lead after Tarik Black and Williams made consecutive baskets early in the fourth quarter to make the score 74-73. The opportunity was good for the Lakers since the Kings were missing shot after shot and turning the ball over carelessly.

The Lakers went up by five points, but the Kings tied the game on two occasions, however, the Lakers broke the chains at 82-82 and went on a (decisive) 10-0 run behind throng of gold-and-purple-jersey wearing fans all over Golden 1 Center.

Williams’ three-point play with 1:05 remaining in the game was pretty the dagger that done the Kings in. Williams went into the fourth quarter with eight points, but he dropped 13 points in the quarter on 4-of-8 shooting from the floor and made four of five free throws.

“He’s one of the players that can get off in any minute,” Gay said of Williams. “I honestly think that he's underrated. He's a guy who can get buckets and also he knows how to facilitate.”

The Kings looked deflated and frustrated in the game. Matt Barnes, who had seven points, five rebounds, and two steals in the loss, said the team has to stop it passive ways and “play for 48 minutes.”

“We can’t take our foot off the gas,” Barnes said. “We got to have more of a killer instinct.”

PRESS INFORMATION:

The Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 117-97 in Los Angeles on Nov. 4.
After not scoring from the floor in three of the previous games, Ty Lawson made a step-back, 21-foot shot at the 5:05 mark of the first quarter. Lawson ended up with 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting in a little over 25 minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Julius Randle battled DeMarcus Cousins every inch of the way in the Lakers 101-91 victory against the Kings. The physical contact at time looked brutal, but Cousins said that was just in the heat of passion from two players from the University of Kentucky program. “It was just some UK Love. Julius is like my little brother,” Cousins said. Randle thought nothing of the situation, either. “I just love to compete. I don’t get into personal battles or one-on-one. I just do what I gotta do,” Randle said.
Sacramento Kings coach Dave Joerger on Los Angeles coach Luke Walton: “He does a good job with them. You know, it’s a confidence game. If you can get your players to feel confident, go out feel good, and having success helps to; winning some games early kind of reinforce whatever you’re trying to teach each player.”
Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton on Sacramento Kings coach Dave Joerger: “I think Dave is a good coach. He runs stuff. We had a lot of battles when he was in Memphis and they were a team you knew every time we play you were gonna have to grind out a win.”
The Kings play the Portland Trail Blazers on the second of their back-to-back in the Moda Center, Nov. 11. The Kings have lost six matchups in a row to the Trail Blazers, including six on the road in Portland. Portland guard C.J. McCollum has been looking flawless against the Kings. During the 2015-2016 season, McCollum averaged 24.8 points, 5.o assists in four games against the Kings. He also had a career-high 35 point on 14-of-28 shots from the field in Sacramento on Dec. 27, 2015.